Team India made a mistake by starting Ishan Kishan rather than Rohit Sharma, according to Aakash Chopra. In India’s remaining T20 World Cup 2021 games, he wants the latter to open with KL Rahul.
In their first encounter against Pakistan, Team India’s openers were Rohit and Rahul. Due to the absence of Suryakumar Yadav, the Virat Kohli-led side was forced to bring in Kishan, who was forced to bat at the top of the order at the cost of the Indian vice-captain.
“Not according to me and it shouldn’t have been as well. According to me, it was flawed if you are not making Rahul and Rohit open and you change everything after one match. It does not work, your top order is your core, where will you go if you shake your core?” He reasoned
“That is your best opening combination. You played Ishan Kishan, you made him open because of the left-right combination or because of Trent Boult, I don’t have an answer for that but India continuing with that – No, whether you had won or lost or however many runs you might have scored.” Aakash Chopra explained
Rohit Sharma
As such, In T20I cricket, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have had some success as India’s opening tandem. Despite failing to produce in the encounter against Pakistan, they put together a solid opening pair against Australia in the warm-up match.
If Suryakumar Yadav is still unavailable for the Afghanistan match, it will be interesting to see if Ishan Kishan is moved down the order by Team India. The diminutive southpaw struggled in the middle order during the IPL 2021 season and only found his form when he was given the chance to open the batting for the Mumbai Indians.
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